


Oh, never leave me out

by whynotcherries



Series: Here, here, my family (you are my familiar) [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Anxiety, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Ghost Ben Hargreeves, Good Sibling Ben Hargreeves, Good Sibling Klaus Hargreeves, No Apocalypse, No Incest, Platonic Relationships, Protective Siblings, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Vanya Hargreeves-centric, YES EVEN LUTHER STOP BEING MEAN ALL THE TIME, all platonic relationships - Freeform, because he conditioned vanya into believing she'll always be left out, no beta we die like ben, that's gross, they all love their sister, they're all good siblings in this one tbh, this is a family fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22142821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whynotcherries/pseuds/whynotcherries
Summary: Vanya walks in on what she assumes is a family meeting she was left out of. She's quickly dragged in, despite her wishes not to intrude (no matter how hurt she may be) and is quickly proven wrong. Fluff ensues.Ben's in this a lot if that's what you're looking for.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Series: Here, here, my family (you are my familiar) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1593757
Comments: 15
Kudos: 553





	Oh, never leave me out

Vanya walks into the kitchen to see all of her siblings at the table, chatting away.

She walks in, and the noise slowly dies down, “Hey, guys,” she greets, standing by the door, “what’s going on?” she asks, looking between each of her siblings.

Luther looks up at her from his place beside Allison at the table, “Uh,” he says, and coughs something she can’t quite pick up, looking away quickly. When she doesn’t say anything he looks up at her and seems to prepare himself for something before repeating, “family meeting.”

Her heart drops.

It shouldn’t- not really. She’s used to being left out at this point, and this isn’t the first time she’s been left out of a family meeting; although, the last time was during the almost-apocalypse. 

What hurts is that they promised- ironically, at a family meeting- that they wouldn’t leave her out anymore: especially not out of family matters.

She can’t bring herself to say anything besides, “Oh,” for a moment, before she nods, pulling herself together enough to straighten up, “well, I guess I’ll leave you guys to it, then,” she says, starting to turn around, trying to get out before she loses control.

She can already feel it slipping- it’s slowly getting harder from her to keep the lights from flickering, as if that’s their natural state and she’s supposed to keep them steady. 

As she turns around though, she hears Diego call after her and turns around when she feels a hand on her arm, “If we’re stuck here, you’re stuck here,” Five says, practically dragging her back to the table.

Klaus looks at her from across the table. She can almost hear him asking _are you okay?_ She knows he hasn’t spoken, but she nods anyway. He reaches across and squeezes her hand.

It’s about then that she checks out- she’s practically learned to do it on command at this point. During her training, which was being instructed by all of her siblings, but Diego and Klaus in specific (them having had the most traumatic experiences with personal training caused them to refuse to let Luther do it his way, or ‘the Reggie way’, as Klaus liked to call it), she had been told to try to block anything too stressful out.

And family meetings were definitely not the most peaceful places to be.

She’s brought back to reality by Klaus squeezing her hand once again and Luther calling her name, “What? Yeah, sorry,” she says sheepishly, looking down the table at Luther.

Ben, who’s now sitting beside her- or, maybe he was the whole time- let’s out a chuckle, “Take a little trip there, Van?” he asks.

She lets out a short laugh, “Yeah, I guess,” she admits, refocusing her attention to the other end of the table, “What did you ask?” 

Luther looks too annoyed to answer. Allison, however, seems to be getting a kick out of his expression, “How’s training going?” she asks, putting her hand on Luther’s arm.

She’s more than a little shocked that it’s a question for her, personally. The past few meetings they’ve had, the discussion has followed a strict list. It’s unlike Luther to have asked a question that wasn’t on it, “Oh, um,” she looks up, glancing between Klaus and Diego, “I think it’s going okay,” she says, looking to Klaus for input.

She checks out again.

This time, it’s very clear that Luther is extra annoyed when he calls her name again. _Has nobody told him that part of her not ending the world is based on her staying calm?_ “Yeah?” she asks, looking up at him, and then glancing around at the rest of the family’s worried expressions, “Sorry, again.” 

She waits for someone to repeat the question, but they all just stare at her. This goes on for what feels must be at least a solid five minutes (it’s not) when she pushes her chair back, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come over now, I’ll go, and-” This time, it’s Ben’s hand on her arm.

It’s so familiar, and she’s still so not _used to it_ that her control slips and the lights flicker.

He looks up before putting his hand on her arm, “You okay, Van?” he asks, and almost instantaneously, she starts crying. Not a loud cry- nothing close to what they’ve seen come from her at her worst- but enough for them to notice.

It gets worse when Ben turns her to the side and wraps his arms around her. 

“I’m sorry,” she cries, clinging to him tighter than she can remember ever clinging to anyone before. Everyone waits and she can feel the rest of her siblings' eyes on her as she tries to calm down. 

Eventually, with some of Ben’s rubbing her back and whispering in her ear, she manages to calm her sobs down to just some double breaths. She loosens her hold on him gradually, and eventually pulls back to wipe her face- he moves his hands up to rest on her upper arms when she does.

She lets out a wet chuckle, using her sleeve to wipe her eyes, “You okay?” he asks, offering her a sad smile and wiping a stray tear from her cheekbone.

She nods, “Yeah, sorry. I’m better now,” she says, smiling at him before turning and sitting back down.

Klaus looks at her sadly from across the table, “Van, what did you mean when you said you shouldn’t have come over now?” he asks gently, reaching over to grab her hand as Ben moves closer to her and puts his arm around her shoulders.

She sits, gaping, for a minute.

“Well, I, uh,” she starts, looking around at everyone, “I just- clearly you all were trying to have a family meeting. I just didn’t mean to interrupt. I just came down to see if you guys wanted to go get pizza for lunch,” she laughs, sniffling.

Diego looks confused, and Klaus… well, Klaus looks somewhere between guilty and empathetic- she’s used to getting that look from him lately. Apparently, the two old outcasts of the family can have a lot in common just from that.

He squeezes her hand, which he hadn’t let go of, despite the fact that he had to reach across the table to hold it, “Oh, Van,” he mumbles.

Diego watches him for a second before interjecting, “Wait, but- we were waiting for you,” he says, and she snaps her head up to look at him. 

“Oh,” she says, looking down after a second, “I just assumed since you were all already seemed kind of heated when I got here,” she trails off.

Ben smiles, squeezing her shoulder, as Five jumps in, “There was an argument over whether hot tea or iced tea is more valid. Diego and Luther are on opposing sides,” he stopped there. Anyone who knew the Hargreeves knew what he meant.

Allison looks at her from down the table, “We don’t have family meetings without you, Vanya. We made a promise, remember? Ohana,” she says- the family had watched Lilo & Stitch as one of their first bonding moments after the almost-apocalypse, and Allison had turned ‘nobody gets left behind or forgotten’ into a family rule. 

Vanya nods, “I remember. I just- I didn’t know,” she trails off. Ben squeezes her shoulder again. Five even reaches over and squeezes her hand quickly. 

Luther, for the first time since the detour from the schedule had happened, spoke up, “We wouldn’t have started without you. I promise, we’ll never start without you- I think everyone agrees on that, right?” 

Everyone calls the affirmative.

“Thanks, guys,” she mumbles, blushing a little bit.

Klaus smiles at her from across the table, holding his hand out again. The meeting starts back up as he squishes her hand, turning his attention back towards Luther.

Ben’s hand on her shoulder is what keeps her present for the rest of the meeting.


End file.
